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ORATION, 



PKONOUNCED BEFORE THE 



INHABITANTS OF BOSTON, 



JULY THE FOURTH, 1836, 



IN COMMEMORATION OF 



THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 



BY HEKRY W. K I IV S M A ]V . 



;y request of the city authorities 



BOSTON: 
JOHN H, EASTBURN, CITY PRINTER. 



1836. 



ORATION, 

PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE 

INHABITANTS OF BOSTON, 

JULY THE FOURTH, 1836, 

IN COMMEMORATION OF 

THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

OF 

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 



BY HENRY W. KINSMAN. 



V REaUEST OF THE CITY AUTHORITIES. 



BOSTON: 
JOHN H. EASTBURN, CITY PRINTER. 



1836. 



El % s'<S 



CITY OF BOSTON. 



In Common Council, July 4, 1836. 
Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be presented to Henry W. 
Kinsman, Esq., for the eloquent, patriotic and instructive Oration, this day de- 
livered by him, before the City Authorities, and that the Mayor be requested to 
ask of him a copy for the press. 
Sent up for concurrence. 

JOSIAH aUINCY, Jr., President. 

'■' . In the Board of Aldermen, July 4, 1836. 

Read and concurred. 

SAMUEL T. ARMSTRONG, Mayor. 
A TRUE Copy — Attest, 

S. F. McCLEARY, City Clerk. 



3 4 



ORATION. 



On this anniversary of the day which gave birth to the 
independence of our country ; on this anniversary rendered 
still more interesting by the death of three of the Chief Mag- 
istrates of the republic ; on this anniversary which the dying 
lips of John Adams pronounced to be "a great and a glorious 
day ;" it is well becoming the children to celebrate the 
memory of the fathers, from whom they derived the inherit- 
ance which this day purchased, and to endeavor to perpetu- 
ate the recollection of their virtues, as the best means of se- 
curing the benefits which those virtues have obtained. 

We come not here, chained as it were to the car of a 
conqueror, to celebrate his victories. We come not here to 
render a cold tribute of respect to a custom of our predeces- 
sors. We come here, from the voluntary impulse of our 
own feelings, to exhibit our devotion to the cause of freedom, 
and our gratitude to God, who has given us a prosperity un- 
equalled in the history of the world. And, although, familiar 
with liberty as with the air we breathe, we may sometimes 
for a moment, forget its value, yet dead must be the soul to 
every generous emotion, cold and selfish must be the heart, 
which is not touched by the enthusiasm, which the recur- 
rence of this day is fitted to excite. Laying aside, then, all 
bitterness of party feeling, all sectional and local differences, 



4 



forgetting even our personal occupations and daily business, 
let us devote a brief hour to our country alone. 

The virtues of our ancestors, their patriotism and their 
success, are too dear to every one of us ever to be forgotten, 
and they have always, more or less directly, formed the sub- 
ject of contemplation on this day. Without attempting in 
any degree to undervalue their merit, permit me, fellow citi- 
zens, to say, that we ought sometimes to look to the future, 
as well as to the past. The traveller, who pauses to look 
back upon the dangers, or to admire the prospect he has left 
behind, will make little progress on his journey. So, if with 
vainglorious exultation, we content ourselves with referring 
back to the patriotism and enterprise of our progenitors, in- 
stead of making active exertion ourselves to preserve the 
privileges, which that patriotism and enterprize obtained for 
us, we may, before we are aware of it, forfeit all which they 
struggled so arduously to acquire, and losing ourselves in a 
dream of ancient renown, we may awake to real and present 
misfortune and disgrace. And should we ever by our own 
carelessness and indifference, sink down from our high estate 
into national degradation and shame, should the liberty, of 
which, perhaps, we are too much inclined to boast, ever 
be overthrown, our dishonor will be in no respect redeemed 
by the splendor of a former age. On the contrary, it will 
stand out in bolder relief, and become more prominent from 
the contrast. To the pusillanimous and abject inhabitant of 
modern Greece, the recollection of the age of Pericles, the 
memory of Marathon, of Thermopylae, and of Salamis, must 
be sources of bitter and aggravated sorrow. May the time 
never come, when the inhabitants of New England shall re- 
member Bunker Hill fight, with similar emotions of grief and 
pain, and when her children, recreant and degraded, shall 
have cause to blush at their own humiliation, when looking 
back upon the characters of their sires ! In order to avoid 
so mortifying a termination of a career, which has been thus 
happily commenced, there is something to be done by the 
men of this generation, besides rejoicing in the renown of 



their ancestors. We cannot expect llieir fame, glorious as it 
is, we cannot expect their virtues, pure as they were, always 
to save the country. We ought not to be satisfied, merely 
with offering our gratitude to those \vho have gone before us, 
nor to act, as if we supposed, that an ardent admiration of 
their achievements, was the beginning and end of all that is 
required of us as good citizens. Our obligations by no means 
end here — our duty only begins with a deep veneration for 
those mighty men of old. To tread in their steps, to profit by 
their example, to emulate their glory, to continue and per- 
fect the great work which they commenced, these are the 
duties, which every American citizen is called on to per- 
form. From the graves of our fathers, a voice comes to 
us, which whispers, all that men could do, we have done, all 
that patriots could do, we have done. We have achieved for 
you liberty, liberty, which until our time was never fully 
enjoyed, which was not even entirely understood. Although, 
beginning with the earliest Grecian patriots, through long ages 
of despotism and cruelty, a noble army of martyrs have sac- 
rificed themselves in her cause, although the poets and ora- 
tors of Rome and of Britain have celebrated her praises, 
although at her altars tears and blood have been poured forth, 
yet liberty, rational, constitutional liberty, has by us alone 
been achieved. To our sons we bequeath the glorious in- 
heritance, and on them we impose the obligation of sustaining 
and diffusing the principles of freedom. To the faithful per- 
formance of this sacred trust, fellow citizens, we are admon- 
ished by a regard for posterity, by God, by our country, and 
by good men every where. Instead then of dwelling upon 
the often repeated history of the revolutionary struggle, a his- 
tory which ought to be known by heart to every good citizen, 
let us improve the occasion, by considering some of the 
means of discharging this trust, thus committed to us by the 
Fathers of the Revolution. 

Among the most important means of perfecting and per- 
petuating republican institutions, allow me to call your atten- 
tion to the cultivation and just application of useful knowl- 
edge; 



The exercise by every individual in a republican govern- 
ment of the right of suffrage, and 

The necessity of caution and moderation in introducing 
changes into our system. 

On these topics I shall make a few suggestions, so briefly 
as not to weary your patience, if I should fail in interesting 
your attention. 

It is to be attributed in a great measure to the ignorance of 
the people, to their want of intelligence upon political affairs, 
that no constitutional government has yet succeeded in any 
of the countries of Europe. The people of those countries 
do not want courage or resolution. They want information. 
Bloody and desperate have been the conflicts between pat- 
riots and tyrants, but the people have wanted skill to retain 
the power they have several times acquired. Their ill-di- 
rected efforts have, in some instances, only served to 
strengthen their bondage and to rivet their chains. In 
relation to our own country, it may not be too much to 
assert, that all the public spirit, all the bravery of the people 
of these colonies, would never have accomplished the Amer- 
ican Revolution, if that public spirit and bravery had not 
been accompanied and assisted by a high degree of intelli- 
gence and wisdom. It was this sagacity, this wisdom, which 
enabled our statesmen to direct the storm of Revolution, and 
finally to compose the elements, little less stormy, of confu- 
sion and anarchy which were likely to succeed. It was this 
intelligence on the part of the mass of the people, that taught 
them the advantages of Union, that taught them the prudence, 
by a constitution and laws, of imposing some restraint even 
on liberty itself, in order that it might be a power to do good, 
and not a license to do wrong. 

Founded thus in wisdom, it rerjuires intelligence and wis- 
dom in the people, not only to understand, but also to guard 
and preserve our institutions. Other governments have 
grown up out of the necessities of the people, and have often 
been the result of accident, rather than of any previous design. 
Our own, on the contrary, was not forced upon us by oppres- 



sion, was not the offspring of accident, nor was it resorted to 
as a desperate chance, to avoid the still more desperate alter- 
native of anarchy. It was the result of a deliberate plan, the 
product of the wisdom of sages, constructed with a view to 
the greatest good of the greatest number, and arranged, so far 
as possible, to guard against the evils of licentiousness on the 
one hand, and the miseries of despotism on the other. 

It is in this view, the peculiarity of our government, name- 
ly, that the diffusion and right use of knowledge, are so im- 
portant, so absolutely necessary to us as a people. So obvi- 
ous is this importance, that you may perhaps be surprised, 
that I should even think it necessary to name it. I do so for 
the purpose of pointing out an error which, it is to be feared, 
prevails upon the subject. This error is, that wholly over- 
looking the use to which knowledge is to be applied, we pur- 
sue it more for purposes of amusement than of instruction, 
and, satisfied with learning entertaining facts, either in science 
or history, we neglect the more important duties of reflection 
and comparison. 

Knowledge is not to be sought as an end merely, but as a 
means. To desire to be rich in learning, only for the sake of 
hoarding it up, is almost as preposterous, as to desire to be 
rich in money for the same purpose. The true object of 
knowledge is, not that one may be able to say " I know so 
much," but to make us wiser and better; and, for this pur- 
pose, to think is as necessary, as to hear, to reflect, as in- 
dispensable, as to read. The man, who attends a lyceum 
lecture, only to amuse a leisure hour, just as he would, for the 
same purpose, resort to a puppet show; the person who reads 
history, as he would read aromance, only to excite the ima- 
gination ; these persons derive very little benefit from any 
information they obtain. They may, it is true, have an ac- 
quaintance with here and there an isolated fact, they may re- 
member the particulars of a battle, or the result of an experi- 
ment in natural philosophy, but they are far, very far, from 
being permanently profited by any knowledge they have ac- 
quired. The causes of things and their effects, the relation 



8 



vvhicii one event bears to another, it is a reflection upon these, 
which gives knowledge all its value. It is this which fornns 
the character of the philosopher, whose wisdom, by gathering 
here a little and there a little, by connecting this fact with 
that, by comparing the result of one experiment with the re- 
sult of another, is enabled, as it were, to construct a ladder 
of knowledge, by which, like the angels on the ladder of 
Jacob, one might almost ascend to Heaven. It was this fea- 
ture in the minds of such men as Bacon, and Newton, and 
Franklin, which elevated and enlarged the human mind by 
new discoveries in science, and with new views of truth. It 
is this, which enables us from the history of the past, to de- 
rive valuable instruction for the future, which makes us wise 
by the wisdom of others, and assists us to profit in our own 
conduct, by the experience of those who have gone before us. 
Nor is this all, besides enabling an individual to act rightly 
himself, this just application of knowledge, will enable him to 
judge rightly of the actions of others. It is to this end, that 
the proper cultivation of the powers of the mind, is so desir- 
able in its connexion with political affairs, that we may be 
qualified to discriminate between truth and falsehood. It has 
been said by one of the greatest minds the world ever pro- 
duced, that it is of no consequence that falsehood is permit- 
ed to go forth to the world, if truth be also in the field. But, 
in order to distinguish the one from the other, in order that 
truth may be discerned and followed, amidst the obscurity 
and darkness which passion and prejudice throw around her, 
the understanding must be enlightened, the judgment must 
be matured. In communities where the people do not make 
the laws, where they are, not only not required to think, but 
absolutely forbidden to do so, a state of ignorance may even 
be a state of bliss; for knowledge, under such circumstances, 
would only awaken them to a sense of their unfortunate con- 
dition, without affording them the means of relief. But, 
with us, where the people are, at the same time, the supreme 
power and the subject, the rulers and the ruled, ignorance 
would be as incompatible with happiness, as it would be fatal 



to freedom. For, as this state of ignorance is the most fa- 
vorable to the continuance of absolute power, so it is the sur- 
est means of bringing it about. And if the dark and iron 
age of political slavery is ever to pervade these now happy 
shores, it will be introduced and preceded by the slavery of 
the mind, by the neglect of the means of education, and of 
that cultivation of the mental faculties, which first awakens 
man to a sense of what he is, and of what he is capable of 
becoming ; which, making him acquainted with the extent of 
his own powers, teaches him to abhor and scorn all bondage, 
whether of the mind or of the body, and leads him to aspire 
after an excellence, which beginning and advancing here, will 
finally be completed and perfected in another and still more 
intellectual state of existence. It is for this reason, that the 
cultivation and just application of useful knowledge while they 
improve the character of individuals, must also have an impor- 
tant influence upon the character of the government. While 
a neglect of them will certainly produce the most disastrous 
effects ; effects, which, it is to be feared, are already begin- 
ning to exhibit themselves. No one, who has observed, 
even cursorily, the signs of the times, can have failed to per- 
ceive, that a want of steadiness and reflection, the consequen- 
ces of a want of thorough discipline of the mind and charac- 
ter, are the most prominent defects of society, at the present 
period. They may be traced in the fondness for excitement 
every where so obvious ; in the eagerness to hear or to see 
some new thing ; in the readiness to believe and spread every 
rumor ; in the tendency of the public mind to rush to ex- 
tremes of all sorts, exhibited at one time in the harmless, 
though somewhat ludicrous pursuit of fashions intended for 
other countries and other states of society than our own, and 
at another time, with more dreadful and melancholy enthusi- 
asm, hurrying a mob to the destruction of property and of 
life. These are evils among us which need to be corrected. 
They are evils wholly inconsistent with any long continued 
existence of good government. They are evils, which can 
only be corrected by a diffusion of useful knowledge ; a 
2 



10 



knowledge, not of things only, but of men ; not of events 
merely, but of the human heart and the springs of human ac- 
tion ; by a diffusion, in fine, of such knowledge as will, at the 
same time enlarge and purify the mind, so pursued and ac- 
quired, as to discipline and correct it. Does any one com- 
plain that the suggestions I have made are only suited to the 
scholar and the man of learning, and that the man of business 
cannot profit by them ? I answer, that they are equally ap- 
plicable to all. This discipline of the mind, this practice of 
reflection, which turns all knowledge to good account, may 
be acquired by the sailor on the ocean, by the mechanic in 
his Avork shop, and by the merchant in his counting room. 
Indeed the more the subject is investigated, the more deep 
will be the conviction, that it is the proper use, as well as the 
acquisition of knowledge, on which we must depend, in a 
great measure, for the permanency of our republican institu- 
tions. Here at least, this principle should never be forgot- 
ten. Here, in this Commonwealth, hallowed and sanctified 
by the virtues and the learning of the Pilgrims, where Chaun- 
cy and Matcher taught, and where Bradford and Winthrop 
governed. Here in Massachusetts, the nursery of literature, 
as well as of religion and patriotism. Other States exceed us 
in population, in territory and in wealth; let ours be the praise 
of superior intelligence, and as the flame of liberty was first 
kindled here, here may it continue to burn, with all its origi- 
nal lustre. And, if the mighty tide of men must still roll on 
towards the West, let them still look to the star in the East, 
for guidance and direction ; to that star, towards which in 
'7G, the eyes of this continent, and of the whole civilized 
world, were turned in anxious expectation ; to that star, 
which though rising in gloom and shade, still moved on se- 
renely in its majestic course, dispersing the clouds and nn'sts 
which surrounded it, and guiding our country to an elevated 
and commanding rank, among the nations of the earth. 

This proper pursuit of knowledge, and that cultivation of 
literature and the arts, which must naturally grow out of it, 
will also adorn, at the same time that they strengthen and sus- 



11 



tain our institutions ; and should it ]>c the will of heaven, that 
our government, like all those which have preceded it, shall 
be at last dissolved, they will confer upon the republic a re- 
nown, which will be more lasting than even the republic it- 
self. So that when the " dies ilia et ineluctabile tempus'' of 
our country shall have arrived, that then her literature shall 
be her fairest monument, not like the " dull, cold, marble," 
which speaks not, or like the everlasting pyramids, which 
cannot tell who was their architect, nor when they were erect- 
ed ; but such an animated and ever-living memorial of our 
country's greatness, that the traveller of future ages shall linger 
round the ruins of our capitols, and weep over the graves of 
our poets, with something of that enthusiasm which we feel 
on the site of the Academy, or at the entrance of the Par- 
thenon. 

The exercise by every individual, of the right of suffrage, 
is another important means of perpetuating a republican gov- 
ernment. Such a government being derived from the people, 
the people must watch over, and protect it. If we, in this 
country, enjoy greater privileges, than the people of any 
other, we are also under greater obligations. Every thing 
depends upon the people, upon you, and upon me, fellow- 
citizens. We have a personal responsibility in this matter. 
Let us not content ourselves with sitting down quietly in the 
belief, that the government having been wisely and success- 
fully established, every thing will proceed well. Let us not 
be satisfied, that we have a constitution. I know we have a 
constitution, and I thank God for it, but the constitution will 
not protect itself. There is no magic in the word. It is after 
all but paper, as it has frequently been called, and needs the 
vigilance, the care, the votes, and it may be, at some future 
time, that it will need the arms of the people, to sustain it. 
There is the more reason for this constant watchfulness, in- 
asmuch as there will always be many persons ready to take 
this trouble out of our hands. There are many men, artful, 
intriguing, and ambitious, ready to take care of the govern- 
ment, ready to take care of the people, ready to take care of 



12 

the constitution. Many who would be willing to leave to 
you, only the same liberty, that the despotic Elizabeth allow- 
ed to her servile parliament. Liberty, to use her own words, 
"liberty of aye and no, but by no means a liberty for every 
one to speak what he listeth." Remember upon this sub- 
iect the words of Washington in his last legacy to his coun- 
trymen : " Let there be no change of the constitution by 
usurpation." See that no one department of the government 
usurps the powers, or attempts to restrain the just exercise of 
the rights, of any other. Our system has often been appro- 
priately termed a system of checks and balances. The mo- 
ment any one department acquires a preponderance, that mo- 
ment the whole system is in danger of being destroyed. 

Our vigilance is also required to guard against another 
danger, less obvious, but perhaps more fatal, than usurpa- 
tion, against the designs of those who would delude us by a 
pretended regard for law, and an extravagant affection for the 
people. These are pretexts, under vi'hich the enemies of the 
people have often successfully deceived them, to resist which, 
all the intelligence, all the resolution of the people will be ne- 
cessary. From open violence there is not much to fear 
among a brave and enlightened community; but where treason 
takes the flattering garb of love and regard for the constitu- 
tion and the public good, or assumes the insidious disguise of 
legal enactment, or seeks to justify its encroachments, by 
strained constructions and doubtful precedents, it is much to 
be apprehended, that liberty may be subverted, and the whole 
character of the government changed, before we are even 
aware of any material alteration. Let us not be deceived by 
these pretexts, these flimsy disguises. A regard for law, an 
affection for the people, have been the uniform cover of the 
designs of tyrants and despots. Was there ever an instance, 
from the earliest period of history down to the present time, 
of any man or set of men, who obtained, or attempted to ob- 
tain, arbitrary power, who did not commence operations, 
quietly, imperceptibly, gradually, under the form, and in the 
guise and appearance of law ? Charles the 1st, would not 



13 



have dared to seize the estates of his subjects by direct vio- 
lence; that would have been too palpable, too plain; it would 
have provoked the people to open resistance. He attempted 
to extort their property, under the pretence of the legal tax 
of ship-money. George the od would never have presumed 
to interfere directly and openly with the rights of the people 
of the colonies. It w-ould have set, not only this continent, 
but all England in a blaze. No ! he undertook to overthrow 
their liberties by act of parliament, but our fathers saw the 
object, and resisted, nobly, successfully resisted, and in so 
doing, left us an example of self-denying patriotism which 
ought never to be forgotten. Why did they resist .'' Not for 
themselves alone surely; for the loss of a few pennies, or shil- 
lings would not have impoverished them, would not material- 
ly have interfered with their present ease and comfort; but 
they knew, that the encroachment once acquiesced in and al- 
lowed, we their children must forever be slaves, and they 
were willing to give up their ease, their comfort, their prop- 
erty — they even counted not their lives too dear, to be 
sacrificed in so righteous a cause. 

It is this pretended love of the people, which has often 
destroyed the liberties of the people. It is this form of law, 
which has been the ruin of many a free government, as well 
as of many an individual patriot. It was by form of law, that 
Algernon Sydney was executed, and many a martyr to free- 
dom, during the long struggle which has for ages been going 
on between liberty and despotism, has been sacrificed under 
the form of law, but contrary to every principle of justice. 

I cannot close this portion of my remarks, without alluding 
to another danger, to guard against which, the people must 
be vigilant ; a danger of which we are admonished by recent 
events, that of an extension of our territory by conquest. 

Our country is already extensive. From the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, from North to South, our government stretches over 
thousands of miles, includes almost every variety of climate, 
and reaches over lands, which, in any other quarter of the globe, 
would comprehend many diiferent races, languages, and tribes. 



14 

Various conflicting interests are to be reconciled, many sec- 
tional prejudices to bo conciliated. Thus far, a sense of com- 
mon dangers, a common origin, a mutual dependence and 
equal rights, have kept the States united, and may still con- 
tinue to do so, so long as we adhere to the simplicity of our 
ancestors, so long as we maintain the union, for the purposes 
of its original formation. The moment that we extend our 
territory by conquest, that moment, we conquer not so much 
the people of any other country, as the people of our own. 
This consideration ought not to be overlooked in the present 
position of the country with regard to Texas, a position of 
great interest to the public mind. With Texas and with 
Mexico we can have nothing in common, and with them we 
ought to establish no relation, except such an amicable one, 
as the mutual advantage of each of the governments demands. 
The limits of this address, will not permit me to describe 
the present condition of these diftereni countries, but I cannot 
forbear to suggest, that the interest, the safety and the true 
glory of the United States, should induce them to stand aloof 
from the contest now going on between Texas and Mexico. 
If we once take part in it, we cannot retreat — a war must 
be a war of conquest. To suppose that the population of 
Mexico, descended in part from the Saracens ; to suppose 
that a Moorish-Spanish-Mexican-American population, as it 
has been well denominated in a speech of a representative of 
Massachusetts, which, it is to be hoped, every one has read ; 
to suppose that such a population as this will ever unite 
peaceably with us, and become one of the States of the union, 
is visionary and absurd. Their language, their habits, their 
national character, all forbid it. A war then, must be one of 
conquest, pursued to extremity, to an extremity which no 
man can contemplate without dismay, or, it must be a war of 
dishonor to us. Either alternative would be a misfortune. 
For whose benefit would be the result of conquest ? For 
that of the people ? Would it promote any of our great 
national interests, agriculture, manufactures, commerce ? In 
each of these particulars we should scarcely be benefitted, 



15 

even by victory. Would it add to our liberty, to our wealth, 
or to our improvement in any respect. So tar from it, a war 
must necessarily be begun and maintained, at a vast cost, and 
to the great injury of our commerce. It would add, not to 
the glory of the country, although at the expense of the mis- 
ery of thousands, it might add another to the long catalogue 
of tyrants, who, gilded by the false and merely reflected lus- 
tre of military fame, have captivated the affections of the peo- 
ple and fascinated them with the hollow appearance of glory; 
a glory founded not on benefits conferred on mankind, but on 
the destruction of the human species and of human happiness. 
In short, I can perceive no possible advantage that can be 
derived from a war with Mexico, unless indeed, it might re- 
lieve us from a fruitful source of altercation in party warfare, 
from the burden of an overflowing treasury, and of superflu- 
ous wealth; and even that occasion for war, if such it could 
be considered, has been removed by a recent decisive and 
triumphant vote of Congress. And yet, a strong current 
seems to be driving us towards this point. By taking advan- 
tage of a sympathy in the minds of many for those who have, 
without doubt, really suffered, although by their own impru- 
dence, by misrepresenting facts, by exaggerated accounts of 
wrong and injury, and flattering promises of victory and 
wealth, certain inconsiderate persons are endeavoring to 
bring about a state of things, which would leave no alterna- 
tive, but a vigorous and bloody war, or a dishonorable escape 
from it. 

The people cannot be too firm and decided in expressing 
their opinion on this momentous question before it shall be 
too late. Let the faith of treaties with Mexico be inviolably 
preserved — let the independence of Texas be acknowledg- 
ed only when she has shown herself capable of maintain- 
ing it, and of discharging all the duties and performing 
the obligation, incident to an independent government. 
Let us not enter into a contest, from which, at the very best, 
we can reap only barren laurels, and in which, although we 
may Inflict much injury on others, we must also suffer much 



16 



ourselves. For, in addition to the directly bad effects ol' 
conquest in the particular case alluded to, we must, in all 
probability, suffer what all republics have suffered before us, 
from a successful conqueror; we must suffer the loss of name, 
and of fame, of all the glory of the past, and all hope for 
the future. Go to the seven hills of the Eternal City, and 
survey the ruins of a republic, once so magnificent, that its 
very ruins astonish us, and read there the lesson written on 
every broken arch and every mouldering column! See in 
the conquests of the Grecian general, the destruction of his 
own country, which he first elevated, and rendered illustrious 
by his victories, and then enslaved by his ambition! See in 
the hero of Montebello and Marengo, the destroyer of repub- 
lican France! And if all these examples cannot satisfy us, that 
war and conquest must be fatal to the existence of republics, 
then, it is to be feared we were born to be slaves, and it will 
be of little consequence how soon we fulfil our destiny. But 
let us not deserve such a fate. 

Let us not neglect all these warnings afforded us by his- 
tory. Let all these dangers, only a few of which I have 
pointed out, stimulate us to activity. Let the duty of tak- 
ing a part in the political affairs of the country, be engrav- 
ed on every heart. Let it be inculcated on the minds of 
our children, that to the people is confided the obligation of 
preserving and sustaining the great constitutional principles 
of civil liberty, which we have inherited from our fathers. 
It is not to this distinguished statesman, or to that popular 
leader alone ; it is not to the prominent men among us, 
that this duty only belongs. It is to you and to me, fel- 
low-citizens ; however humble we may deem ourselves in 
society, we in this respect, take rank with the highest. 
Our obligation is the same, our interest is the same. If we 
are only true to ourselves, if we only endeavor to obtain 
proper information upon public affairs, and act vigorously and 
honestly, there is no power on earth, that can ever subvert 
the independence, which we this day celebrate. INlay the 
time never come, when the people of this country shall cease 



17 

to take an interest in the affairs of the government ; when 
busy in the pursuit of gain, or sunk in luxury and sloth, they 
quietly yield up the power to any one who chooses to take it. 
Better, a thousand times better is the worst violence of 
party spirit ! which however it may sometimes err and mis- 
judge, however rancorous and bitter it may occasionally seem, 
will yet watch with a jealous eye all the proceedings of our 
public men, and, like a sentinel on a watch tower, be ready 
to give the alarm at the first appearance of danger. And, 
though the alarm may sometimes be false, and the danger 
imaginary, yet, while every eye is vigilant, and every heart 
resolved, I say again, there is no danger of the republic. 
Let the advocates of legitimacy taunt us with sarcasms upon 
our democracy, and with sneers, because here and there an 
inefficient man obtains an office. Let the friends of the 
divine right of kings prophecy our fall, and predict revolution 
and anarchy. We regard not their idle jeers. Even taking 
the very worst view of the case, that our liberty sometimes 
degenerates into licentiousness, our condition is still better 
than theirs. Suppose that the property of individuals may 
sometimes be wantonly sacrificed in a riot, what is that evil, 
to the misery of a whole nation, ground down and oppressed 
with taxes and burdens ? What is the loss of a k\v lives 
(and hundreds of lives have been destroyed in the streets of 
London and Paris, for every one that ever perished in the 
United States) what I say, is the loss of a few lives by the 
fury of a mob, dreadful and much to be regretted as that is, 
compared with the destruction of thousands in the deserts of 
Siberia, and in dungeons and chains ? If we have, now and 
then, for a short time, an Incompetent man in any of the de- 
partments of the government, how can that, for a moment, be 
compared with the misfortune of having an infant or an idiot 
at the head of it ? Let every man reflect. Let every man 
vote. Think not, that an election for even the most insigni- 
ficant office, is of no consequence. Every officer elected, 
every return of votes, has an influence, more or less exten- 
sive, upon public opinion. To the polls, then ! To the 
3 



18 

polls ! No matter what party you belong to. The ballot box 
is the weapon with which the battles of freedom may be most 
successfully fought, and your country will give you no dis- 
charge in this warfare. 

To the other topic which I have suggested, allow me for a 
moment to call your attention — to the necessity of caution and 
moderation in introducing changes into our system of gov- 
ernment. 

There are in all societies persons of a speculative charac- 
ter, who are constantly inclined to try experiments, in gov- 
ernment, as well as in every thing else. There are others, 
who disappointed in their own particular views, regardless of 
the general welfare, would like to overturn society from its 
very foundations, in the hope, that revolution would better 
their condition. There are others, again, always dissatisfied 
with the existing state of things, who, aiming after an unat- 
tainable perfection, think they can cure every defect, and are 
willing to compromise the well being of the whole commu- 
nity, for the sake of trying some project of imaginary benefit. 
In a country like our own, where every thought and every 
word are free, and where unrestrained discussion is permitted 
as it ought always to be, on every subject, these various 
classes of persons, under the specious name of reformers, 
may do infinite mischief. One of the topics of noisy decla- 
mation with these pretended reformers is, the existence and in- 
crease of corporations, which they represent to be fatal to 
freedom, and monsters, which are destined to destroy repub- 
lican government. A slight examination of the origin of cor- 
porations, would satisfy any man of candor and common un- 
derstanding that this position is entirely false, and that, on the 
contrary, civil liberty is more indebted to corporations, as the 
mode by which it was acquired, than to any thing else. 
When, during the barbarism of the middle ages, kings were 
tyrants, and princes and nobles oppressors, then the people 
unprotected while scattered about, exposed to all sorts of in- 
justice and wrong, collected together in towns and cities for 
purposes of mutual protection, and to secure for themselves 



19 



collectiv'ely, those rights, which, as individuals alone, they 
could not have obtained. These were among the first cor- 
porations, and, during many ages, they were almost the only 
places of refuge for the oppressed. For, being combined 
together in numbers, and protected by citadels, the inhabit- 
ants of these cities were often able to extort from their rulers, 
charters and privileges, which were before unheard of. Any 
one who is at all familiar with history, must remember many 
instances in which the city of London has almost compelled 
the sovereigns of England, to submit to its own terms. Such 
was the commencement all over Europe, of the amelioration 
of despotic power, which, beginning thus, has been gradually, 
from time to time, modified, until the inhabitants of many 
portions of that quarter of the world, enjoy a degree of free- 
dom, far inferior indeed to our own, but beyond measure 
greater, than that which existed in the same countries five 
centuries ago. 

What these civic corporations were to kings, our manufac- 
turing corporations of the present day, are to the wealthy 
capitalist. A man of large means may engage in great enter- 
prises with safety, and might, if there were no competition, 
almost secure to himself the exclusive enjoyment of many of 
the most profitable kinds of business, which require great 
capital, and into which men of little property can not, with 
prudence, enter. But when, by means of an act of incorpo- 
ration, these persons of moderate wealth are enabled to 
unite together, they can enter into competition with the rich, 
and their aggregate small capitals will enable them to do so 
successfully. This is one advantage of corporations. Many 
others might be mentioned. This alone is a great one. It 
puts the poor on an equality with the rich, extends enter- 
prise, promotes great public works, and consequently the 
prosperity of the whole community. No man can, for a mo- 
ment, look at the evidences which meet him at every step, of 
improvement in all those arts which contribute to the conve- 
nience and enjoyment of civilized society, and not be satisfi- 
ed, that any plan, which will throw open all sorts of business 



20 



10 general competition, must be a benefit to the public. 
Compare the facility now enjoyed for communication, be- 
tween different and distant places, with what it was seventy 
years ago, when a conveyance was advertised as a cheap, 
convenient and expeditious mode of travelling from New York 
to Boston, which performed the journey in fourteen days. 
Convenient and expeditious truly! Now, the same excursion 
may be accomplished in almost as many hours. This and other 
similar improvements, are, in a great degree, to be attributed 
to that combination of means and efforts which acts of incor- 
poration have introduced. I need not, however, detain an 
auditory like this, by a further discussion of a subject which 
has been so often examined. Nor, need I allude to many 
other topics, on which these would-be reformers delight to 
expatiate, with the same misrepresentation of facts, and the 
same sophistry of reasoning. There is no system of govern- 
ment so perfect, as not sometimes to be unequal in its opera- 
tion. Laws, however general and just, will occasionally pro- 
duce severe hardship, in particular cases. By constantly 
dwelling on that which seems defective, and keeping out of 
sight all that is salutary in our government, it will be easy for 
the ill-disposed and wrong-headed, to exert a very unfavora- 
ble influence on the public mind, unless it is prepared and on 
its guard. Their projects and schemes, however attractive, 
and however they may be recommended under the popular 
and plausible pretence of reform, should be received with 
great caution. Every change is by no means a reform. 
What by some might be regarded as a remedy for an existing 
evil, might perhaps introduce other evils of ten fold magni- 
tude not anticipated. The state of the times, the ever vary- 
ing feelings of society, the progress of improvement, and the 
result of ordinary experience, will certainly require that chan- 
ges should, from time to time, be made in our laws. But, 
this necessity for change, will gradually develope itself, and 
the remedy can be applied, when the difficulty is clearly 
made to appear. There can be no occasion whatever for 
sudden and violent changes, and when change is recommend- 



21 

ed, let us examine carefully the mischiefs which are said to 
require amendment, and be sure, that the alterations propos- 
ed will cure them, before we suffer ourselves to be precipi- 
tated into measures, which perhaps we shall afterwards re- 
gret, and find it impossible to recall. The madness of the 
people of Athens often hurried their bravest, their wisest citi- 
zens to the block, to the hemlock, or to ignominious flight. 
Aristides was exiled, and the son of Sophroniscus condemn- 
ed. The former indeed was recalled, but the eloquent lips 
of the venerated Socrates were forever closed in death, be- 
fore his ungrateful countrymen were sensible of their error. 

If changes in law be sudden, and to extremes, there will al- 
most necessarily follow confusion and disorder, and most 
probably other changes, in order to restore things to their 
former condition. Look at that torrent pouring from the 
hills, and bearing destruction in its course. Cottages, herds 
and men, are overwhelmed and destroyed. The same stream 
gently flowing the vales, diffuses fertility and happiness ; its 
banks are green with perpetual verdure ; unnumbered are the 
flocks that feed upon its margin ; and the heart of the shep- 
herd is glad. So, even a change which in itself might be bene- 
ficial in a government, if violently and rashly introduced, often 
produces disturbance and revolution, whereas the same change 
judiciously made, with a proper regard for the feelings and 
prejudices of the community, may lead to the happiest re- 
sults. This disposition to frequent and often unnecessary 
change, was one cause of the destruction of the Grecian re- 
publics ; and in modern times, the attempt to introduce re- 
publican principles into the despotism of France, by too 
hasty and violent means, before the people were prepared for 
them, turned a revolution which might have been of the great- 
est importance to mankind, first into a state of anarchy infi- 
nitely worse than despotism itself, and finally restored abso- 
lute power in a new and more dangerous dynasty. 

Let us not then, lend a willing ear to the suggestions of 
those who would pursuade us, that our government is radical- 
ly defective, and needs constant reforms and changes. Such 



22 

suggestions proceed, either from the inexperienced and inju- 
dicious, whose zeal is very feebly supported by knowledge, 
or from the selfish and designing, seeking their own benefit, 
and indifferent to the public good. 

I have thus briefly touched upon some of the means of pre- 
serving and sustaining our institutions, and of performing the 
important trust committed to us by the founders of the 
republic. 

The cultivation and just application of useful knowledge ; 

The exercise by each individual of his constitutional rights ; 

The necessity of caution in introducing changes into our 
system. 

Let these principles never be forgotten. Let these prin- 
ciples guide all our conduct. Let no servile, miserable, dis- 
honorable notion of political expediency ever find acceptance 
here. Although majorities elsewhere should be against us, 
although corruption and licentiousness should prevail all around 
us, still let us maintain the doctrines of Washington. It 
would be reckoned base and cowardly to desert the standard of 
our country in battle, when the enemy pressed hardest against 
it ; it would be equally unworthy, equally infamous to desert 
the principles, by which that standard was originally sustain- 
ed. Let us, then, though all men should be against us, al- 
though we should stand entirely alone, let us still adhere to 
the faith of our fathers. Then, whatever may finally become 
of the government, we, at least, shall have discharged our 
trust. We must now depend upon ourselves, we have no 
longer those fathers to instruct us. Their lips are silent and 
cold. They live only in their works. They are all gone. 
The last year has witnessed the departure of one who seem- 
ed to connect us with the past, by a sort of animated tie. 
John Marshall, the friend and biographer of Washington, the 
learned judge, the upright magistrate, the pure patriot, has 
ceased from among the living, and has left in his precepts 
and his example, his private life, and his judicial decisions, 
an influence which will be felt to the latest period of our his- 
tory. Eloquent voices have spoken his praise — a whole na- 



23 

tion acknowledges his worth. But posterity alone can do 
him justice, hecause posterity alone can justly appreciate the 
full measure of his services to his country. When the men 
of this generation shall have passed away ; when the party- 
questions which now agitate, shall cease to interest us; when, 
even the names of many, who now occupy a large space in 
the public thought, shall be forgotten; then the glory of Mar- 
shall shall just be dawning. Then the elements of jurispru- 
dence, which were by him so profoundly examined and so 
clearly explained. Then the beautiful form in which his de- 
cisions have embodied the Federal Constitution, will be fully 
understood. Then the salutary direction, which his labors 
have given to the public mind, upon questions of the highest 
national importance, shall claim for him the gratitude of com- 
ing generations. Future republics in other lands, shall hail 
him as the great expositor of constitutional law; and his name 
shall be identified, not with this age or this country alone, 
but with the names of those benefactors of the human race, 
by whose wisdom nations are instructed, and by whose char- 
acters human nature itself is elevated. The great men of the 
revolution are all gone. Intelligence has this very morning 
reached us, that James Madison of Virginia has also joined 
that illustrious band of departed worthies, who, while they 
dwelt upon earth, guarded and guided us, and whose blessed 
spirits, we sometimes fondly imagine, may still watch over 
and protect us. It is not yet a week, since the fourth Presi- 
dent of the United States has entered upon his everlasting 
rest. He has left but two persons surviving, who have ever 
'filled that exalted station, the one who now holds the office, 
the other, a distinguished citizen of this Commonwealth, 
whose talents and public services have made him an ornament 
to his native State. 

It would be trespassing upon the province of some other 
eulogist, for me now to dwell upon the character and merits 
of Mr. Madison. His connection with our history, as a co- 
adjutor of Hamilton and Jay, in defending the principles, 
and advocating the adoption of the great charter of our Na- 



24 



lional Union, will ever entitle him to the grateful remembrance 
of his countrymen. He was fortunate in his life, in having 
contributed so largely to so great a work, and in having, for so 
long a time, witnessed its successful operation ; fortunate in 
his death, full of years and full of honors. The founders of 
the republic have all gone, but they have left us a legacy of 
wisdom, an inheritance of freedom, worthy their own great 
fame. Call our system a mere experiment, if you will — in- 
sist, if you please, against all reasonable probability, that it 
can never succeed, yet the past, at least, is secure. Thus 
far, whatever may be our future destiny, we have been fortu- 
nate indeed. Two generations have passed away, since we 
commenced our national existence. Sixty years of prosper- 
ity have been enjoyed by the people of these States. Thou- 
sands, nay millions, have passed their lives in peace, security, 
and freedom, under the protection of our government. And 
is all this aggregate of happiness to be counted for nothing .'' 
Is the domestic tranquillity, the respect abroad, the attain- 
ment of wealth, the cultivation of literature and the arts, the 
advancement in knowledge of all sorts, the civil and religious 
liberty, which almost all these years have witnessed, to be 
considered as merely the dust of the balance, and not reckon- 
ed in the account ? Surely if our government were this mo- 
ment to be dissolved, if our name were now forever blotted 
out, the enjoyment of the past, the good already attained, 
have well repaid all the cost of the experiment. But, our 
government need not be dissolved, our name need not be 
blotted out. The people have only to profit by that which 
has gone before, and they can easily direct all that shall come 
after. If we are but true to virtue, true to the constitution, 
true to ourselves, then the promise of future prosperity shall 
ripen into a glorious harvest. To this fidelity to virtue and 
the constitution we are urged by every consideration, that 
can move the mind of man. Our most valuable, indeed all 
our valuable rights and privileges, our personal and religious 
freedom, our property and our lives, are involved in the dis- 
charge of this duty. Look about, citizens of Boston, on the 



25 



beautiful hills which surround your city — those liills which 
witnessed the departing ships of your discomfited adversary — 
those hills, whose soil is every where enriched with the blood 
of freemen. Consider the constitution of your country, the 
work of sages and patriots. Consider your own position, as 
guardians of that liberty, after which the wise and the good of 
other countries, and other ages, have so ardently aspired — 
for which Tell and Hampden and Lafayette fought, and for 
which your own Warren fell. Consider all this, and say, if in 
view of all these sacred, these thronging, these thrilling recol- 
lections, you can ever forget, or neglect, the duties of a free 
citizen of a free republic. 



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